Jun

13

A Conversation with Christopher Rouse

Filed Under Rouse: Requiem, Videos, Interviews, Commissions | 2 Comments

On the eve of the much-anticipated premiere of his Requiem, award winning composer Christopher Rouse met with Soli Deo Gloria’s Executive Director, Chandler Branch, and the two discussed his approach to music. A snapshot of their conversation is captured in the video below.

Christopher Rouse’s Requiem received its premiere by the Los Angeles Master Chorale on Sunday, March 25, 2007. For reviews and more information on the Requiem and Christopher Rouse please visit the links below.

Jun

1

LAMC Presents Music by Beglarian, MacMillan and Part

Filed Under Concerts | Leave a Comment

On June 3, 2007, the Los Angeles Master Chorale will present a special concert premiering music by Iranian-American composer Eve Beglarian. This concert is part of a multi-season project titled “L.A. is the World,” highlighting the music of the many master musician immigrants in Southern California. The Chorale will present Sang (Stone) along with Iranian-American musicians Manoochehr Sadeghi and Pejman Hadadi. The Chorale will also perform Magnificat and Munc dimittis by James MacMillan and Te Deum by Arvo Part during the ensemble’s last regular season concert in Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Eve Beglarian’s chamber and orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the california EAR Unit, Relache, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the American Composers Orchestra, Sequitur, Dinosaur Annex and the Robin Cox Ensemble, among many others. She also has notable experience in music theater and has collaborated with a number of choreographers. Recordings of Beglarian’s music are available on New World Records, Canteloupe, CRI Emergency Music, OO Discs, Accurate Distortion, Atavistic, Kill Rock Stars and Koch Records, which released her most recent recording From a Far-Off Country.

 

James MacMillan is known as one of the most prominent Scottish composers of our time. He has been the featured composer at the Edinburgh Festival and the South Bank Centre in London. In 2000, MacMillan was appointed Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic and in 2004, was awarded a CBE. His percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel has received over 300 performances by orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Cleveland Orchestra. A Scotch Bestiary was performed by the LA Philharmonic in 2004 as the premiere for the Disney organ. Recordings of his works can be found on BMG/RCA Red Seal, BIS, Chandos, Naxos, Black Box and Hyperion. James MacMillan is an Honorary Director of Soli Deo Gloria.

 

Arvo Part, acclaimed Estonian composer, is well-known for his creation of the musical technique called “tintinnabuli” (from the Latin, little bells), which involves the use of two simultaneous voices as one line — one voice moving stepwise upward and downward from a central pitch, and the other voice adding the notes of the triad. His many awards include election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the “Contemporary Music Award” at the Classical Brit Awards. His compositions include Our Garden, a children’s cantata, Stride of the World, an oratorio, Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2, which utilize serialism and Collage uber BACH, using collage techniques. His later compositions focus on the use of religious texts, such as Te Deum, originally composed in 1984.